Agency Info
Meadows Group Inc., Realtors
1902 SE Morrison St.
Portland, OR 97214
The “Small Home Movement”
Homes Shrinking in Size
Haven’t you heard? Yes… there’s a movement! And it can be seen around the country and the world today. Homes are getting smaller. As the economy suffers, people are realizing that smaller is simpler, less expensive, and improves the quality of our lives in so many ways.
According to a recent article by Nicholas Riccardi in the LA Times (see article here), the National Association of Builders surveyed its members and found that 90% of them are building smaller now. The reasons they gave were increased energy consciousness, empty-nest baby boomers downsizing, and the economic downturn.
What really struck me was that between 1973 and today, homes grew from 1660 sq ft to 2500 sq ft on average across the U.S. Then last year, according to the article, there was a dramatic 11% drop! Some say that people always downsize in a recession. But that large of a drop is seen by many as a possible change in the trend toward larger homes of recent decades. And that’s great news for those of us who believe its time to make less of an impact on our planet.
Jerry Clifford, a Minneapolis, Minnesota Real Estate Agent, writes that smaller homes improve our lives in many ways: cheaper utilities, easier to keep clean, prevent us from owning too many unnecessary “things”, and getting clutter out of our lives. They help us be smarter about storage and in better planning of our living spaces, such as unused rooms that are available only for “when company comes”. Like so many of my generation, I grew up in a fairly large home over 3000 sq ft, and two large rooms of the home were the formal living and dining room, which were separated from the rest of our house by shuttered doors. They were only opened “when company came”, which was maybe 3 or 4 times each year, especially during the holidays. What a waste!
Small homes are also cheaper to maintain, repair and remodel because they require less materials and time. They are by their very nature more “green” because they take less resources to build. And especially important today, they are usually less money which means a smaller mortgage and less debt.
By reversing the trend of the last 40 years, we can take better care of our earth so it will be able to support us for generations to come. Sounds like a great plan to me!
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